now on bbc news. the latest business news from across the globe. globe. business today. a show of of resilience. the bank of england england says risks to britain's financial financial system have risen this this year. but all of the country's country's seven largest banks pass pass stress tests, relieving the the pressure. and obr official says says the chancellor did not mislead mislead on the challenges facing facing the uk ahead of the budget. budget. and one shell of a fortune. fortune. one of the most expensive expensive easter eggs in the world world is up for sale with the will. will. the crystal faberge winter winter egg crack records and fetch fetch over $26 million. a warm welcome welcome to business today i'm mark mark lobel. we start here in the the uk, where the bank of england

england has been warning of an increase increase in economic risks from heightened heightened global geopolitical tensions tensions and fragmented trade as as part of its financial stability stability report, the uk's central central bank said the increased risk risk of cyber attacks and the potential potential of an ai bubble correction correction all add to the picture. picture. but there was positive news news for uk banks lowering the amount amount of capital they need to hold hold as lenders for the first time time since the 2008 financial crash. crash. here's the governor of the the bank of england laying that out. out. these results indicate that that the uk banking system would would be able to continue to support support the economy, even if economic economic conditions turned out materially materially worse than expected, and and we're now able to confirm that that the benchmark has reduced from from around 14% of risk weighted weighted assets to around 13%. the the fpc recognises the important important role that the financial financial sector has to play in contributing contributing to economic growth, growth, but i would underline that

that the single most important thing thing we can do to support sustainable sustainable economic growth is to to maintain financial stability. stability. the bank of england governor governor there. meanwhile, a row row has been brewing over whether whether the chancellor talked up up the uk's fiscal woes ahead of of last month's budget, even hinting hinting at an income tax rise that that may never have been needed. needed. but today she got some cautious cautious cover. a senior official official at the uk's economic forecaster forecaster told a parliamentary committee committee he doesn't believe the the chancellor was being misleading. misleading. i thought the message message was more there's a this is is a very challenging fiscal position position and all i am saying is that that a number that was plus 4 billion billion in the pre measures forecast forecast is not inconsistent with with that. the statement, the sentiment sentiment that this is a very challenging challenging fiscal position. jackie jackie bowie is managing partner partner at risk management firm chatham chatham financial. jackie, just to to start on those bowie stress tests tests that i was just mentioning,

mentioning, there is this good news news then for uk households and businesses. businesses. there'll be more money money for lending. yeah, i mean the the reduction in the benchmark capital capital requirements for uk lenders. lenders. so that's the tier one capital capital ratio, which is the amount amount of capital banks need to hold hold relative to their risk weighted weighted assets has reduced. so what what that means is it gives them them more capital to deploy. now now arguably that could be in lending, lending, in which case that would would be positive for economic growth. growth. but it could also be deployed deployed in other ways share buybacks buybacks or paying dividends to shareholders. shareholders. but all in all, it it does give them more flexibility. flexibility. the first reduction reduction we've had since the financial financial crisis. why the city minister, minister, lucy rigby, mentioning mentioning an nft conference that that she doesn't want banks on, on on the naughty step. but why can can they withstand a crisis now? now? what's changed? well, they have have been building their capital capital buffers post the financial financial crisis and there's been been much more scrutiny in how they they measure their risk weighted weighted assets and the different different tiers of capital that they they have to hold to support that. that. and these stress tests that

that they're put through their multivariate, multivariate, you know, they're quite quite extreme with regard to interest interest rates, inflation, economic economic growth. and the results results today show that even if all all of those factors were very negative negative for the banks, that they they would still have the resilience resilience to survive, ie we wouldn't wouldn't end up in another financial financial crisis where the banks banks had to be bailed out. jackie, jackie, let's turn to the obr comments comments today. 4 billion is a challenging challenging fiscal position. i think think that's the message from economists economists today. but there's still still confusion, isn't there, as as to why interest rate rises were were so publicly exhibited and never never used and or possibly why the the fiscal position was perhaps mischaracterised mischaracterised by the chancellor. chancellor. do you think either of of those are still outstanding concerns? yeah. i mean, this is a a whole omnishambles that's really really kicked off from that very very first speech from the chancellor chancellor earlier in november and and ultimately the generally the the public are not focused on 4 billion, billion, 6 billion, 20 billion. what

what they keep hearing is fiscal fiscal black hole. and we have to to all bear the cost of that. and and that was the message that was was constantly reiterated right up up until the day of the budget. and and i think where we are today, you you can drill into the numbers, but but that overall sentiment is still still there, that the language and and i guess a bit of scaremongering scaremongering that the chancellor chancellor was promoting in her speeches speeches really was not what came came through and doesn't actually actually reflect the reality of the the position for the uk. ok. jackie jackie bowie, managing partner at at chatham financial, great to have have you on the show. thank you very very much. thank you. the tech leader leader michael dell and his wife wife susan dell are to deposit cash cash into the investment accounts accounts of 25 million american children children in a philanthropic pledge pledge totalling over $6 billion. billion. it's part of president trump's trump's invest america initiative initiative known as trump accounts. accounts. let's cross live to our our north america correspondent michelle michelle fleury now, michelle, there there you are. it's been investments

investments into ballrooms. now it's it's baby's bank accounts from billionaires. billionaires. the dells the latest latest in a long line of helping helping trump's initiatives. they they want to make every child a capitalist capitalist according to ted cruz. cruz. how will these accounts work? work? what's going on? yeah, i mean, mean, this is being seen as perhaps perhaps the biggest gift ever to to american children. as you say, say, this money is donated to the the so-called trump investment accounts. accounts. you may recall back in in july 4th as part of the tax and and spending bill, that this administration administration passed, these were were included in that. and the idea idea is that the treasury department, department, when the programme launches launches next year on july 4th, they they will put in $1,000 into accounts accounts that have been set up for for children born between 2025 and and 2028 and the dells, who are putting putting in six over $6 billion. and and that's billions with a b here. here. they will add $250 to each

each account for a child whose family family earns less than about $150,000 $150,000 a year. and the idea is is to try and sort of help improve improve their future, because these these accounts are in theory, not not allowed to touch them until the the child turns 18, and then they they can use that money to sort of of put towards school or starting starting a business, or maybe buying buying their first home. that's the the theory behind it. it is a new new idea that has been unveiled by by the trumps. but critics of the the broader tax and spending bill bill say, well, look, you know, this this doesn't offset things like cuts cuts to health care for the poorest, poorest, cuts to food stamps, cuts cuts to child care services. however, however, the dells say they are trying trying to kind of make sure that that kids have a better future. and and it really is an experiment that that that kind of hasn't been seen seen before. a gift of this size, size, i think, is what has caught caught so many off guard. and the the dells are hoping that maybe this this will spur other billionaires billionaires to do the same. yeah,

yeah, and the dells opening up to to even more kids than were previously previously planned. michelle fleury fleury in new york. thank you. i i want to take you to south africa africa now where the food delivery delivery firm spaza eats has been been focusing on serving the townships townships and rural areas that were were being ignored by existing delivery delivery firms. it has tens of thousands thousands of customers giving food food sellers a modern delivery platform, platform, which also generates data data that is being used to develop develop a larger marketplace called called analyticsx. we've been hearing hearing from its founder. because because we had house of tech. it it has automated our ways of operation. operation. we have advanced people's people's businesses using technology technology and also we have automated automated processes of work in many many large corporations. it helped the business on a large-scale, help them to understand

understand their consumer behaviour behaviour patterns. and when do they they make purchases? and beside that that technology, we also built spaza spaza market which help impact in in the township and create economics economics and bankability. so those those two technologies made us make make impact. i've learned that things things don't just grow immediately immediately when you want them to to grow. when we start business, business, we leave corporate and and we want to win within a year year might take even five years or or ten years. so you need to be prepared prepared to fail, innovate and grow grow with time. i think it's a journey journey of authenticity, of being being yourself and executing your your thoughts in the best way. so so you have to be ok with the development development and growth. i've learnt learnt to be patient, to have grit grit and also to be ambitious and and audacious in what you're doing. doing. you shouldn't expect people people to just believe in what you're you're doing. you need to show what what you're doing and over time it it draws a picture. and that's business.

business. matthew will be back with with all your news in just

welcome back to verified live. good timing because just in the last last few moments, word from moscow moscow that that meeting between between vladimir putin and steve steve witkoff has started. this the the pictures from moscow of the convoy. convoy. and we'd seen vladimir putin putin at an investment conference conference a little earlier. those those really robust, hostile comments comments aimed at the europeans and and certainly since returning there there to the kremlin, word that that that meeting with jared kushner, kushner, with steve witkoff, that that has started. so these the pictures pictures from a little earlier from from moscow. but this the crucial

crucial meeting